Writing Dogs and Fiction with Patricia McConnell PhD and Cat Warren at Bark! Fest
Join Patricia B McConnell (Away To Me) and Cat Warren (What the Dog Knows) for a conversation about writing dogs and fiction at Bark! Fest.
By Zazie Todd, PhD
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Patricia McConnell PhD and Cat Warren at Bark! Fest
Join these two much-loved and best-selling authors for an informal conversation about writing fiction with dogs as important (and realistic) characters.
Patricia B McConnell PhD is an internationally-renowned applied animal behaviourist whose books include her compassionate and uplifting memoir, The Education of Will, about how dogs and humans heal from trauma. Her first novel, Away to Me, is a suspenseful and immersive mystery set in the dog world which begins as Maddie McGowan’s best friend is killed at a sheepdog trial.
Cat Warren is the author of the beautifully-crafted New York Times bestseller What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World which explores the extraordinary abilities of scent detection dogs. Also available as a Young Reader’s Edition, it tells the story of how her impossible shepherd dog Solo became a human remains detection dog.
As they work on their second and first novels, respectively, these two incredible authors will discuss the writing (and re-writing) that makes canine characters leap off the page.
Tuesday September 15th at 1 pm Pacific (4 pm Eastern / 9 pm UK time).
The event is hosted by Zazie Todd and Kristi Benson.
Please support the authors by getting their books, which are available wherever books are sold, including my Amazon store, Bookshop, and probably your local library too.
The event will be recorded. A link to the recording will be sent to everyone who registers.
About Away to Me by Patricia B McConnell
The vivid, immersive nature writing of William Kent Krueger and Peter Heller meets the taut suspense of Louise Penny against the lush, sprawling landscape of rural Wisconsin in the first of a new mystery trilogy by internationally renowned animal behavior expert Patricia McConnell, bestselling author of The Other End of the Leash and The Education of Will.
Maddie is living her best second life on a 40-acre sheep farm in rural Wisconsin. In addition to her passion for training sheepdogs--including her spirited border collie Jack--she sees all manner of dogs with behavioral problems ranging from biting to thunder phobia as part of her local practice. No stranger to trauma herself, Maddie has worked hard to recover from the ordeal of her previous marriage.
But things take a turn when Maddie's friend and mentor, George, is inexplicably killed by a rifle shot fired from the woods during a sheepdog trial. Maddie is devastated and also baffled--it's not hunting season, and who could mistake a man, standing alone in a field, for a deer?
She's still reeling from George's shooting when a shelter calls her for help with a German shepherd found half dead beside the highway who's too aggressive to feed and care for. The dog flourishes at the farm, but when Maddie returns one day to find her house invaded, it's clear that she has stumbled into a situation far more complex and sinister than she realized. And her romantic involvement with an enigmatic young shelter worker soon leads to even more trouble. As Maddie continues to search for answers to George's death, it quickly becomes apparent that her own life is once again in danger . . .
Patricia McConnell, PhD, CAAB is an internationally renowned animal behaviorist and author whose acclaimed books, including The Other End of the Leash, For the Love of a Dog, and The Education of Will, have sold more than 1.2 million copies. A former adjunct professor in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and behavior columnist for The Bark magazine, her nationally syndicated radio show, Calling All Pets, played in more than 110 cities for 14 years and her television show Petline aired on Animal Planet for two and a half years. She lives with her Border Collies and a flock of sheep on a farm in Southern Wisconsin and can be found online at PatriciaMcConnell.com.
About What the Dog Knows by Cat Warren
A New York Times–bestselling book about the extraordinary abilities of man’s best friend.
When Cat Warren adopted Solo, an unruly German shepherd puppy, she soon began to wonder what she’d let herself in for. Solo’s boundless energy was what made him loveable ― but it also made him exhausting, and difficult to train. Then she struck upon an idea: what Solo needed was something to do.
Like many dogs, Solo was destined to work: using his nose to help the police locate missing people. In this lively, accessible book, Warren details Solo’s journey from troublesome pup to expert cadaver dog, and explores the fascinating hidden world of animals that do essential work and the handlers who train them.
Cat Warren is the author of the New York Times bestseller What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World (Touchstone). It was long listed for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. She also wrote What the Dog Knows for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers). A retired professor from North Carolina State University, she currently researches and writes about scent detection dogs and archaeology. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, David, a German shepherd, Rev, and a Boykin spaniel, Brio.
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